Protein Biochemistry Lead

**About the role**

The **Protein Biochemistry Lead** oversees all employees and functions of the **Protein Biochemistry Team**, which ultimately focuses on the development of assays and methodologies to purify and/or produce recombinant protein products for commercial sale. The Lead supervises, supports and trains team members, monitors progress towards goals, develops new research methodologies, and sets team strategy to ensure high-level company objectives are achieved. The Lead works closely with other R&D Team Leads to ensure a cohesive R&D strategy, and is supported by the VP of R&D.

**As a senior member of the Future Fields team, _all Leads are responsible for: _**
- Supervising, supporting and training team members.
- Developing team-specific strategies to support high-level company goals.
- Monitoring progress towards goals and course correcting as required to ensure objectives are met.
- Setting and monitoring team OKRs.
- Continuously exploring, developing, optimizing, testing, and implementing new methodologies and processes.
- Collaborating with other team leads and the executive to ensure cross-functional alignment on work plans, strategies and timelines.
- Conducting “hands on” bench work whenever needed to maximize team capacity, optimize methodologies and aggressively progress R&D outcomes.

**This role owns**:

- Leading the purification and characterization of recombinant protein products to enable protocol transfer to manufacturing group.
- Developing the R&D strategy for the Protein Biochemistry team, including the development of new assays and implementing these into the Future Fields’ suite of methodologies.
- Conducting hands-on lab work to increase our R&D capabilities for the purpose of expanding our suite of products and improving our overall protein production processes.
- Managing workflow of the protein group to ensure quality, prioritization, and timeliness across R&D and production.
- Cross department collaboration with genetics, engineering, and cell sciences teams to ensure alignment towards company goals.
- Characterization of purified material using chromatographic and other biophysical techniques to generate data packages for lead finding, optimization, and assessment.
- Promoting the use of novel experimental approaches within sub-function; routinely investigates and creates innovative processes, hypotheses, and methodologies.
- Technical supervision, training and mentorship of the downstream scientists and associates.
- Innovating and spearheading the development of downstream process technologies that can result in significant increases in efficiency and purity.
- Assuring GMP success through effective tech transfer and support of GMP manufacturing. Coordinate efforts with manufacturing to achieve program success.
- Anticipating experimental needs and understanding an individual experiment in the context of the entire company’s goals.
- Analyzing data, reporting, and communicating key results to VP of R&D (weekly basis) and other relevant colleagues.
- Reporting and communicating progress towards key metrics and milestones (Weekly Team meetings; ORK updates).

**This role assists by**:

- Supporting in recruitment, interviewing and onboarding of new team members.
- Developing methods to perform in-depth protein characterization including but not limited to protein quantification and post-translational modification.
- Developing protocols/SOPs and implementing quality control measures.
- Performing characterization on key products using protein analytical techniques (e.g., SDS-PAGE, HPLC chromatography, Octet, Western Blot, etc.).
- Performing data analysis and summarize experimental results.
- Assisting colleagues to complete laboratory tasks, as necessary.
- Maintaining a clean and safe work environment.
- Supporting business development efforts as needed including investor due diligence, project evaluation, and technical input on proposal and work plan development.
- Critically contributing to process/product characterization efforts.
- Incorporating new technologies into the company and supporting technology integration (in and out of the lab).
- Ensuring operations are designed and sourced appropriately to enable the company to achieve ambitious goals.**This role requires**:

- PhD in Biochemistry, Protein Engineering or related field with 3-5 years of relevant industry experience
- Experience managing teams and junior scientists
- Proficient in protein/antibody purification using various chromatography techniques
- Demonstrated expertise in purification optimization to maximize cost-efficiency and yield
- Hands on experience in operating and maintaining AKTA chromatographic, Tangential Flow, and other column-based chromatography methods
- Expertise in protein characterization using electrophoresis, mass-spectrometry and other physio-chemical methods elucidating the structure-function relationship of various types of proteins
- Familiarity with state-of-t